TY - JOUR
T1 - Symmetric Intralimb Transfer of Skilled Isometric Force Production
JF - bioRxiv
DO - 10.1101/491415
SP - 491415
AU - Rajan, Vikram A
AU - Hardwick, Robert M
AU - Celnik, Pablo A
Y1 - 2018/01/01
UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/12/09/491415.abstract
N2 - Theories of motor control propose that the same motor plans can be employed by different effectors. This leads to the possibility that skills learned with one effector can 'transfer' to others, which has potential applications in clinical situations. However, evidence from visuomotor adaptation suggest this effect is asymmetric; learning can be generalized from proximal-to-distal effectors (e.g. arm to hand), but not from distal-to-proximal effectors (e.g. hand to arm). We propose that skill learning may not be subject to this asymmetry, as it relies on multiple learning processes beyond error detection and correction. Participants learned a skill task involving the production of isometric forces. At baseline we assessed their ability to perform the task with two different effectors (the hand and arm). One group trained to perform the task using only their hand, while a second trained using only their arm. In a final assessment, we found that participants who trained with either effector improved their skill in performing the task with both their hand and arm. There was no change in a control group that did not train between assessments indicating that gains were related to the training, but not the multiple assessments. Performance with the arm showed a trend for improving more when participants trained with the arm than when trained with the hand, suggesting additional benefits of training with a relatively underutilized effector. These results indicate that in contrast to visuomotor adaptation, motor skills can generalize from both proximal-to-distal and distal-to-proximal effectors. We propose this difference is due to differences in the processes underlying skill acquisition in comparison to visuomotor adaptation.
ER -